Celebrating Women

Several years ago I had the chance to do an hour-long, on-camera interview with Sonja Sanchez, and it was wonderful. The interview was only supposed to be 30-minutes, but I had so many questions, and we were having such a good time, she was willing to keep going (Too bad after all this time, the video was lost).
The opportunity came at a time when I was going through a nice, long stint of writer’s block. But talking with her released the words that had been stuck inside me. And as a poet, the result was this poem,

“After the Talk” for Sonja Sanchez

She became
My priestess
My guru
My petite
goddess

From then on
I wanted to sit beside her
and breathe her air

Study her

From then on
it was
“Sonja said this…”
and
“Sonja said that…”
and
“When I talked to Sonja
She said thus and so…”

thus and so

And poetry
became fresh
where the atmosphere
had been dull lifeless
and stale

Sonja
exhaled
what I needed
and I wanted it in my lungs

Her books became bibles
Her wisdom was like
Solomon on earth
And I wanted it
in my lungs